I Belong

Book Series: PRINCE OF SHADOWS, Book 8 in the “By Moonlight” dark paranormal shape-shifter series.

Job: I’m a prince. Really! As one of the Twelve of the House of Terriot, I’m in line to inherit the Shifter throne from my father, Bram, and control our territories in the southwest along with our investments in Reno and Las Vegas. But my real job is as a warrior. Being a Terriot is about claiming everything we can reach, wanting everything we see, and holding onto everything we have—an often brutal job. And I’m up for it. Always.

Height: a less than impressive 5’9” next to my half-brothers who top 6’2 easy.

Weight: a lean, mean 165 of clan-tattooed muscle and sexy scars

Hair Color: dark blond shot through with Terriot red

Eye Color: gray/green/blue depending on mood and clothes, but usually covered by dark glasses

From (Location): Lake Tahoe, NV, mountaintop compound of the Terriots.

Significant Other: Kendra Terriot, my distant cousin, soul mate, and soon to be queen – as soon as I earn the right to have her.

Signature Move: A quick, deadly combination of mixed martial arts that puts them down and keeps them down. Fighting is serious business in my family. We have to be ready to protect our own or go to war with other clans at any minute.

Kill Highlights: Underground cage fighting in my natural state. Though our basic form is usually reserved for war or mating because of the danger involved, there was no other way to avenge the insult done to me and my family, and to the honor of my future mate, except to challenge the three of my brother’s friends who thought it was a good idea to put their hands on her to combat. Pretty bad f-ing idea. One lost his throat, one his heart and one his head. No one harms what’s mine.

Enemies: Someone in my position has no friends. Everyone’s a potential enemy, even family. Especially family. Obvious enemies are our rivals the Guedry family out of Memphis who nearly crushed us before my father took control of our clan with an iron fist. He’s built us back up as a power to be feared, if not necessarily respected, through methods I haven’t always agreed with. Then there are those outcasts in New Orleans clustering around that unknown, Max Savoie. The Prophesied One, they’re calling him. Dangerous, is what I call him, because he’s causing friction amongst our people. And I can’t forget my own personal demon, Silas MacCreedy, who’s been a pain in my backside since childhood and is now threatening my future with the female I love. I don’t deal well with threats, so something’s going to have to be done about him.

Favorite Pastime: Wooing my future queen. After spending most of my life fighting for the chance to claim her as my own, I’m finding it the more difficult battle to convince her to bond with me as my mate. Difficult, but not without its rewards.

Other Facts: Growing up as the runt of the litter in a dog-eat-dog warrior clan, the struggle just to survive became a fight to excel once I met my life-mate, Kendra. My father and brothers think it’s about having the crown. But it’s always been about just one thing. Having her. And there’s nothing I won’t do to make that happen.

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If only I were bigger, stronger, faster, tougher, I could protect those I love from anyone who tried to hurt them.

Bigger, stronger, faster, tougher had become his personal mantra, and it had beaten him almost to the limits of his life. Over and over. Knocked down, bruised, bloodied, and broken, but always getting up. Always. Eventually, his brothers and then his trainers had begun to look at him differently, with surprise, with amusement, and finally, with hard-won respect. He’d heard their ridicule turn to uncomfortable advice: Stay down, Cale. Don’t you know when you’re beaten? He wasn’t beaten until he stopped trying to regain his feet. Never give up. Never back down. Never walk away. What don’t kill you . . . He was a Terriot prince. The world would bend and tremble before him.

With over 50 sales to her credit since her first publication in 1987, Portage, Michigan author Nancy Gideon’s writing career is as versatile as the romance market, itself. Her books encompass genres from historicals and regencies to contemporary suspense and the paranormal. Her works have been published overseas in Romanian, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Danish, German, Icelandic and Chinese, among other languages.

Also listed on the International Movie Database (IMDB), she collaborated on the indie horror films In the Woods and Savage with screenwriting and ADR script credits, and even played the character “Bar Extra.”

A national speaker on writing in general and romance in particular, Gideon is a Western Michigan University honors grad with a major in journalism and minors in history and communications. She’s a member of Novelist, Inc. and the Mid-Michigan, Greater Detroit, PASIC and FF&P chapters of Romance Writers of America®, and is former vice-president, published author co-liaison and award-winning newsletter editor for MMRWA.

The mother of two grown sons, one married and proud producer of her grandson and the other shanghaied into being her assistant, she also works full time for the law firm, Redmond, Redmond & Yokom.

A prolific writer, Gideon attributes her creative output, which once peaked at seven novels in one year, to her love of history and a gift for storytelling. She also credits the discipline learned through a background in journalism and scheduling writing time around diaper changes, Scout meetings, band lessons and outings to the Zoo Boo . . . and, of course, OCD. The due date for her third book and her second son were on the same day . . . and both were early! When on deadline, she turns on the laptop between 4:30 and 5:00 a.m. to get a chapter in before work.

While the pace is often hectic, Gideon, a Gemini, enjoys tackling diverse projects. One month it’s researching the gritty existence of 1880’s Texas Rangers only to jump to modern themes of intrigue and possibly a legal thriller or two. Then, it’s back to the shadowy netherworld of shape shifters, vampires and movie serial killers. When not working on her latest plot twist before sunrise or arranging medical depositions, she enjoys indulging in Netflix, hosting her critique group, and feeding a variety of wildlife on her fourth-floor balcony including a yearly family of raccoons. And, of course, reading.

A gentle lady held hostage in a deadly play for power, Kendra Terriot’s only means of survival for herself and her family is to play to a careful courtship game. The one she chooses from the dangerous Terriot heirs will inherit the coveted crown, but the one she longs to have rescue her belongs to another.

Favored son of their cruel Shifter leader, the only calm in Cale Terriot’s necessarily violent life is his childhood love for his delicate distant cousin whom he’s pledged to make his queen. With Kendra at his side, he knows he can become the kind of ruler his clan needs, but first he must learn how to become the kind of mate she desires.

In a treacherous race for control, where weakness means death, Cale must prove he’s not the beast his beauty fears and still protect her, especially once her chosen love returns to free her. The only way to win her respect could mean surrendering his throne. The only way to win her heart could mean letting her go.